Monday, November 23, 2020

Iron Hands Medusan Immortals Squad

The squad is altogether now, and here's an image to do them some justice. 


I like the gritty feel of the squad overall. They really communicate the likely conditions on the sands of Isstvan after being betrayed and suffering the massacre of their allies. At their feet lie some remains of the third legion (Emperor's Children) as they muster for revenge against the traitors. These marines will join my breacher squad to form a full 10-marine breacher squad for use as a Shattered Legions force. I still have some work to do on the rest of the Iron Hands contingent, but this is a great basis for expanding the force. 


Friday, November 20, 2020

Iron Hands Medusan Immortals 5/5

Rounding off the squad of Iron Hands Medusan Immortals at number 5 is this marine. Along with his brothers, he is also a survivor of the massacre by the traitors in the opening moments of the Horus Heresy. As befits such a survivor, he has battle damage in places, and plentiful mud scattered over his feet, lower legs, and shield. 


I enjoyed painting the battle damage on to this one in particular as it offered a chance to experiment with a couple of techniques. On the shield, one of these techniques is visible: a silvered surface surrounded by scorched black marks suggestive of explosive tipped ammunition shattering on the shield (i.e. bolt gun rounds). Once more, I'm happy that I didn't glue this one together before managing to paint his left shoulder pad. Although some of it is obscured by the shield, I'd know it was unpainted if I left it in there undone. 

A post featuring the full squad in all their glory will be made soon enough. Stay tuned. 


Wednesday, November 18, 2020

Iron Hands Medusan Immortals 4/5

Number four in my squad is this battle brother. Sporting a requisite amount of mud on the feet and lower legs, this marine has been through hell and back on Isstvan and now only exists to extract revenge on the traitors for the massacre. 


Mud aside, the red parts that can be seen just below the ammo feed on the bolt gun is part of the scanner that is attached to the waist of the marine and is simply poking through due to the line of sight of the image. The numeral ten on the left knee pad is a decal from the standard space marine range (although for a few of these, I did decide to kit bash -- decal bash -- the XX from the Alpha Legion to obtain some smaller ones for the Iron Tenth!). 

I like the way that this one has turned out, especially the wiggly iron pipework on the left shoulder pad that is partially hidden behind the shield. I decided to paint this first, prior to gluing together the shield on to the arm. In hindsight, this was the right choice, and it also allowed some painting on the interior of the shield as well. 

Tuesday, November 17, 2020

Iron Hands Medusan Immortals 3/5

The third marine in the Iron Hands Medusan Immortals is muddied after seeing serious action against the Emperor's Children. Although following the same painting scheme as the others in this series, the mud is turned up a notch and features heavily on the shins and feet of the miniature, with a touch on the shield too, let alone the third legion shoulder pad that can be seen on the ground in front of him. 



Anomalously whiter than the rest of the miniature, and seemingly relatively untouched by the mud, is a bolt gun with the numeral "X" on the side. The narrative here is that this marine recovered the bolt gun from a fallen battle brother when his own bolt gun failed him. It also gives a touch more diversity to the squad overall and I feel it is a nice addition. Overall, I'm happy with this even given how much the alternate colour bolt gun stands out. 

Saturday, November 14, 2020

Iron Hands Medusan Immortals 2/5

The second marine in my Iron Hands shattered legion Medusan Immortals is nominally the squad leader and armed with the usual bolt gun and shield. 


The base and lower part of the marine have been spray painted with darker muddier tones to present the suggestion of wear and tear on the fields of the Urgall Depression, including a tire that has probably been blown off some Emperor's Children biker. 

What I'm particularly pleased with on this miniature is how the red and orange eye pieces have worked out. They provide a nice contrast to the dull black of the Iron Hands scheme used here. Some edging in gold offsets this and combined with the weathering around the lower edge of the shield provides the final overall tone for the miniature. For the head, I attempted a few-day-growth effect for the receding hairline by subtly applying a grey colour in a male-pattern balding outline. Very happy overall with this one. 

Thursday, November 12, 2020

Iron Hands Medusan Immortals 1/5

Painting progress report today. I have decided to round off my Iron Hands Breacher squad by filling it out with Iron Hands Medusan Immortals. This will take their number up to a total of ten, packed out with two flamers as their selected special weapons. 


This is the first Medusan Immortal that I've painted. It follows the Iron Hands recipe that I worked out for the rest of the Breacher squad earlier on: muted black colours (as opposed to the shinier Raven Guard slick black) combined with Nuln Oil washed metallics and battle damage applied to various locations. The trim of the armour is picked out in the washed silver colour itself as well, whereas the lenses are a combination of reds and oranges to create a reflective (refractive) lens appearance that complements the otherwise darker colours. The base has a rhino door sporting Emperor's Children colours to represent the battles that took place in the Isstvan system as is thematic with the Shattered Legions approach that I'm taking here. 

This particular marine sports a flame gun held on to the shield. In hind sight -- and if I had the time over again -- I would have put the flamer on one of the other models that did not hold the gun in place on the shield. The fit was fiddlesome to say the least and not a task I'd want to do again in a hurry. I will remember this for next time. Otherwise, this is the first of 5 marines that I will be presenting over the coming days (hopefully not weeks!). 

Sunday, November 8, 2020

Horus Heresy Review: Marduk Sedras

Background.
One of the oldest warrior in the service of the Dark Angels, Sedras has fought alongside the Emperor himself, primarchs, and many others of renown. He has seen it all. Been there - done that. There's almost no battlefield type he's not served on and mastered. 

Strengths.
Sedras has many strengths. In terms of equipment, he is a terminator with a S+5 sword at AP2 which makes him deadly in close combat. He further reduces the invulnerable saving throw of enemies down by one notch thanks to the sword which could make him the breaker of enemy terminator hammer units. 

To my mind what really sets him aside from others is the Ancient of War rule which gives preferred enemy against a given faction to Sedras and any over half-strength unit within 6 inches of him at the start of the game. This is great and will resonate with many of the plasma weapons that the Dark Angels can bring to the battlefield. 

Finally, he gets to take a cenobite squad instead of a deathwing squad which won't count against the squad limit. This is very nice and comes recommended to take full advantage of his preferred enemy bubble.

Weaknesses.
Sedras is fundamentally a close combat Master of the Legion. The controlling player, as usual, will need to figure out how to get him in to combat quickly. Take a vehicle and start him on the board, as the negatives of not having him on the board (Ancient of War) is too severe to not have him there.

Given that he will start the board castled up with other units, we must also take care that the enemy isn't going to use vindicator splat templates on the army, or call down a barrage from orbit. This is a serious consideration for the Ancient of War rule when setting up.

Overall.
I like Sedras overall. He is worth the points, and can be heavily exploited for the preferred enemy rule that can really turn the tide of a battle in favour of the Dark Angels. He's also a loyalist, and can never be take by traitor forces which is a nice addition and flavourful. I can readily see many players taking him -- possibly even favouring him over the likes of Corswain for his army boosting abilities. 
Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...

Facebook

Sequestered Industries